Pop-up landscape architecture in Ho Chi Minh City: Cases of creating livable city for all

Abstract

The pop-up architecture (or landscape architecture) becomes popular nowadays. Some highlights include annual architecture program such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion at Hyde Park, London; MPavilion in Melbourne; MoMA PS1 and Heart Sculpture in New York. Many of these pop-up architectural works have been designed by world renowned architects, such as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Hezorg and de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Toyo Ito, SANAA, Shigeru Ban, BIG, etc. And many of these designs reflect innovative thinking that changes the professional world of architectural design. But above all, these pop-up architectures were created in responsive manner to the urban community and the community controversially has good response to this type of architecture. In the other words, pop-up architecture is the way the architects touch the heartbeat of the cities, make them livable for all. Ho Chi Minh City has its own types of pop-up landscape architecture, whereas this paper intends to explore in two case studies: Nguyen Hue Floral Boulevard and Nguyen Van Binh Book Street. Nguyen Hue Floral Street is celebrating now its twelfth birthday in the city. Nguyen Van Binh Book Street has just passed its first anniversary in 2017. Both cases live its own story behind the scene about how livable a city could be through place-making by architecture and landscape design. Throughout these cases, we would like to find out how this type of pop-up landscape architecture being realized and become popular in Ho Chi Minh City, and how it is devoted to a livable city for all.